A Wyoming man busted by a vigilante child predator patrol YouTuber will serve 10 years in federal prison after admitting to possessing child pornography.
Federal District Judge Alan Johnson sentenced Sean Joseph Brennan, 58, of Hudson, to 120 months Tuesday afternoon in the Joseph O’Mahoney Federal Building in Cheyenne.
Johnson also imposed 10 years of supervision following Brennan’s release from prison and restitution totaling $33,000. Specifically, Brennan is ordered to pay $3,000 to 11 victims.
Brennan, who wore an orange prison jumpsuit and a light brown shirt underneath, didn’t say much during the hearing.
His lawyer, P. Craig Silva of Casper, declined to comment following the hearing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Z. Seth Griswold represented the government and referred questions to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A pre-sentencing report compiled by Probation Officer Kenny Ainsworth recommended a sentencing range of 120–121 months, Johnson said Tuesday.
Federal sentencing recommendations are determined by examining the severity of the crime and the criminal history of the accused. There are 43 levels of crime severity and six criminal history levels, with the higher numbers representing a more severe crime and a more extensive criminal history.
Brennan had a severity level of 28 and a criminal history level of three, Johnson said.
Confronted
Brennan’s arrest came after he was the subject of a YouTube video by Tommy Fellows of Colorado Ped Patrol.
Fellows confronted Brennan at his job in Lander about his sexual conversations with adults pretending to be underage girls. Brennan’s boss fired him on the spot during the confrontation.
Throughout the video, Fellows referenced a binder in his hands featuring what he said was a transcript of sexually-charged conversations between Brennan and online decoy “girls,” including one who told Brennan “she” was 13.
Fellows runs a YouTube operation exposing alleged child predators by having decoys chat sexually online with people while posing as underage girls or boys. Then Fellows confronts the alleged predators about those conversations while streaming live on YouTube.
“I have a little incident of a couple girls you’ve been talking to on the internet,” Fellows told Brennan after Brennan, apparently thinking Fellows was a potential customer, offered to help him at his place of work.
“Do you get sexual with them?” asked Fellows, after the two men walked outside together.
“No,” said Brennan, shaking his head. “I let them know off the bat.”
“So you’d never send, like, inappropriate pictures or anything like that?” asked Fellows.
“Nope,” said Brennan.
“So that phone on you has no child porn on it or anything like that?” asked Fellows.
Brennan again replied, “Nope.”
Fellows said he could prove otherwise and asked if he should have the police come check. He then started flipping through the binder.
“Do you beg minors for naked pictures often?” asks Fellows in the video. “You said, ‘Send me a picture’ and you got pissed off, then you said, ‘Listen little girl, just remember, I’m not mad, but don’t ever ask me for a picture again.’”
Fellows then accused Brennan of teaching lewd acts to one of the “girls,” of making sexual plans with her and sending her sexual pictures.
Brennan says in the video that he wasn’t going to go to Colorado and actually do the things he discussed with the decoy.
Productive Prisoner
At Tuesday’s hearing, Silva argued for the lower amount of time in prison. He said Brennan had completed more than400 iPad educational courses during his confinement at the Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska, Detention Center.
Silva said his client had read several books and been “super-cooperative” while incarcerated, though cantankerous at times. He had also reunited with his mother, Silva said.
Johnson offered Brennan the opportunity to make a case for a lesser sentence.
“I don’t think there’s anything else I could say,” Brennan said.
He added he had completed 500 or 600 iPad courses and that he just stays in his room, reads and completes courses.
Silva also asked Johnson to recommend FCI Inglewood in Colorado or FCI Seagoville in Texas as the location of Brennan’s prison term. He said Seagoville is near Brennan’s mother’s home.
Griswold did not speak during this portion of the hearing.
Johnson said Brennan’s guilty plea would be his fourth criminal conviction for possession of child pornography. He said Brennan’s sexual appetites are very close to an addiction and that Brennan had an apparent sexual preoccupation with children.
Johnson also noted Brennan had been sentenced to prison and undergone counseling, neither of which seem to have worked.
Terms Of Sentence
Johnson accepted Silva’s argument but added several conditions including sex offender registration, mandatory drug and alcohol testing, no pornography possession, no debt, financial monitoring, no contact with the victims and only supervised contact with minors.
He also strongly recommended Brennan address his mental health issues and continue his vocational training in prison. Johnson waived several other fines due to Brennan’s financial difficulties.
Brennan pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography April 3.
Court documents indicate Brennan “knowingly” possessed child pornography involving prepubescent minors on his Dell Notebook computer, his Apple iPad Mini, an HP laptop and a Sony laptop.
A federal grand jury determined enough probable cause existed to charge Brennan Nov. 20, 2024.
Brennan was also charged in Fremont County in September 2024, but that charge was dropped after he was arrested on the federal charge.
Matthew Christian can be reached at matthew@cowboystatedaily.com.
